Back in the Field

I have a tendency to over-schedule my life. I’ll say yes to everything and then quickly find myself thinking, just how am I going to bend space and time to get it all done?

When NOCA’s science advisor Regina Rochefort asked if I could help a researcher in the field this week, I of course jumped at the opportunity and agreed. Never mind that it would be right after I returned from Michigan, that I would have to drive straight from the airport to the research station, having been up since 3:30am. Road-weary as I was, I still knew that I’d rather be hiking through fields of sub-alpine flowers than catching up on sleep.


I was right, it was worth it.

The following images are from a day of fieldwork along the Maple Pass Loop, near Rainy Pass on Highway 20. Adeline “Di” Johnson is a researcher with the National Forest Service and for her PhD, she is studying the role of nurse logs in timberline expansion. In other words, how fallen trees along the edge of the forest and sub-alpine can provide habitat for seedlings and thus help the forests expand. With warmer climates, the prediction is that the timberline is going to move higher and higher up in elevation.

At each site (we did two), a 200ft tape was put down in a more-or-less straight line. Yes, normally we use the metric system but somehow the meter-tape got misplaced. Every log that crosses below the tape is recorded: length, diameter, level of decay, number of seedlings, soil and air temperature, cause of death (Mrs. Plum in the alpine with a hatchet), etc.

Di kept copious notes in a little yellow notebook that hopefully, will never get lost. That'd be my biggest fear as a researcher. I think I'd carry a small xerox machine in my car to make copies every night.

As someone who loves reading color names on paint swatches or in clothing catalogs, I got really excited with Di showed me the Munsell Soil Color Charts. Basically, you match the color of the soil to the book and the matrix can tell you about the physical properties of the soil. The pages even have holes in them so you can put the dirt right underneath it for better comparison. What great design.

Chip, our superintendent, will be happy to hear that Di did a good job interacting with the public. This family of hikers had seen us in the meadow below and inquired about our work. These informal interpretive moments are important in promoting one of our main messages: science is happening in our parks and helps us make good management decisions..

This is also where we saw a weasel running down the trail with a vole/mouse in it's mouth.

Above Lake Ann.

Lunchtime!


Measuring the grade/steepness of the slope at our next site. It was exactly 30% which is the max. level before it becomes too dangerous for us to work.




Di says that she'll be coming back to these sites (totally ~20) over the next couple of years. I think I can make it a point to help out again in the future. :)